Crystal (Japanese: クリスタル, abbreviated to クリスCrys, or Chris in Chuang Yi translations) is the seventh main character of the manga series Pokémon Adventures. Due to a bad fall she took as a child, breaking her arms, she learned to kick Poké Balls with her feet. Although by now her arms have been completely healed, Crystal has retained the habit of kicking her Poké Balls instead of throwing them. She has caught all non-legendary Pokémon for Professor Oak; more than any of the other characters in Pokémon Adventures or even all of them combined.

She later adds Hoenn Pokémon to her collection and apparently begins to work full-time as one of Professor Oak's assistants. Crystal's Pokémon collection is used by Emerald when he goes to the Battle Frontier.

Crystal's special skill, as described by Professor Oak, is Pokémon catching, and she is known as the "Capturer" (捕える者 Capturer).

Character history

Crystal is introduced in the middle of the second chapter, in Volume 10, when Professor Oak is looking for someone to complete the Pokédex for him by catching every known species of Pokémon. He meets Crystal at her workplace, at Earl Dervish's Pokémon Academy in Violet City, and hires her services. But first she asked for something in return. Since the Academy was so worn down she said if she was to help it had to be repaired, which was allowed. After catching all of the Pokémon in Cherrygrove City, she departs after giving them to Oak, stating that she didn't need anymore teammates and they were caught purely for research purposes. Once she leaves Oak and Elm talk about her and Elm reveals that a Chikorita which still was at Elm's lab far after Totodile and Cyndaquil. Hearing that Crystal wasn't interested, Chikorita was devastated and went off to convince her himself. While Crystal initially didn't want it and thought it wasn't strong enough she was impressed by its spunk and courage and switched it in for Chumee, calling it Mega.

After catching a Dunsparce and Flaaffy she meets Bill and he gives her a portable transporter. She then saves him from a herd of Staryu. She was previously unable of transporting Pokémon to Professor Oak due to the transporter be down and Bill gave it to her for the purpose of giving the Pokémon she catches to him since he had no idea what was wrong with the system. She then meets Lt. Surge when she is caught by his Magneton and put in his sub by mistake. When she helps unstick the the sub by catching the leader of a herd of Corsola that caught the sub Surge was impressed and re-payed her by taking her to Olivine City on the S.S. Anne for free.

In Olivine, Crystal visited the unfinished Battle Tower and heard that a tank holding in the waste from the construction burst and flowed into the river, enraging a Qwilfish that lived there. She caught it and learned from it a baby Qwilfish was there and would die from the pollution. While she was taking it to the Pokémon Center she saw Suicune come and purify the lake. This display convinced Crystal to go catch it, especially after Oak called her and wished for her to catch them for data as well. Luckily for her, her Pokédex was close enough to Suicune that it was able to activate the new tracking system Oak had just installed, allowing Crystal to track it.

In her search for Suicune, Crystal meets Eusine, another Suicune chaser, and the two form a rivalry. They have to team up, however, when Team Rocket also tries to catch the Aurora Pokémon, and backtracks them with a Ditto disguised as Suicune. Crystal was able to defeat it and had Parsee use Spore to subdue the Team Rocket Elite Trio so Suicune could escape. While Eusine battles Team Rocket, Crystal battles Suicune at the Burned Tower and fails to catch it. She then learns from Eusine that Ho-Oh was to appear and Suicune simply wanted to meet it, and Crystal was sad for it as she felt she simply got in its way.

Having failed at catching a Pokémon for the first time, Crystal loses her confidence and her ability to catch even weak Pokémon. With her mother's advice, Crystal goes back to her childhood training spot, Mt. Mortar - the place where she first met and caught most of her party. There she remembers about her injury and encounters the same Larvitar that hurt Arckee and it was enraged. She was able to defeat and catch it after Mega evolved and she regains her skills. Later, Crystal meets Yellow and her uncle Wilton, sent to find her by Professor Oak, who take her on their boat towards Whirl Islands. There, the trio encounters a Lugia that starts attacking them. In the midst of the battle, Crystal meets the two other Pokédex holders of Johto - Gold and Silver - and together they try to capture Lugia and fail.

Under Professor Oak's orders, Crystal and Gold head to the opening ceremony of the Pokémon League, where all 16 Gym Leaders of Kanto and Johto have gathered, to try and determine which one of the Gym Leaders is the villainous Masked Man. They battle Chermaine and Keane in the Control Room and end up winning, but locked in. The Masked Man then appears at the scene with both Lugia and Ho-Oh and starts wrecking havoc before heading to the shrine in Ilex Forest, where the final battle then takes place. Crystal heads after him with the three legendary beasts that she receives from Misty, Lt. Surge and Blaine and teams up with the other Pokédex holders to fight the Masked Man. Together with Gold and Silver, she dives after Pryce into the time portal. The Pokédex holders make it out unharmed, but Pryce is stuck inside.

Two years after the battle with the Mask of Ice, Crystal and Professor Oak sent Emerald to the Hoenn Battle Frontier to protect the wish granting Pokémon Jirachi, who was the only way to revive the petrified Pokédex Holders. Due to Emerald lacking Pokémon of his own, she lent him some of the ones that she had caught for brief amounts of time until he finally caught his own. She supervised his mission over the Pokégear.

On the fifth day of the Battle Frontier's opening, Crystal and Gold arrived at the Battle Frontier in order to help revive her seniors. Using her new Mimee, she created an invisible building for the Hoenn Pokédex Holders to train in.

After Emerald finally revived Red, Blue, Green, Yellow and Silver, she had her Mega attack the Sea Beast that Guile Hideout had wished for with its Frenzy Plant. Before Guile Hideout, who was really Archie, the former leader of Team Aqua, vanished, he told the Pokédex Holders how he obtained the armor, which made Crystal fear that there is a greater evil that has yet to be defeated.

On the final day of the Battle Frontier's opening, she, along with the other nine Pokédex Holders, participated in a tournament at the Battle Dome, in which Crystal lost to Green.

Pokémon

Her "starter" Pokémon was a Chikorita which escaped from Professor Elm's lab, longing to go on a journey. It should be noted, however, that Chikorita was not her first Pokémon, as she by her introduction already owned six. All of Crystal's party Pokémon have a symbol of a star somewhere on them. Some wear star necklaces or stickers, but her Cubone and Parasect had natural markings in the shape of stars.

The suffix "ee" (Japanese: ぴょんpyon) of the nicknames of her Pokémon was insisted by her mother, who named everyone except Chikorita.

Here is the list of Crystal's personal Pokémon (updated to the end of Emerald Saga), although aside from these she's also captured every single one from Kanto, Johto, and Hoenn, except legendary Pokémon.

On hand

Chumee ♀

Chumee (Japanese: ムーぴょん), Crystal's Smoochum, is Crystal's childhood Pokémon and possibly her first one. Not used for battle, but to trap wild Pokémon with Mean Look. It is also shown to help her whenever she is assisting Professor Oak in his laboratory. It shares a star pendent with Mega. It is at level 29.

Parasee (Japanese: パラぴょんParapyon), Crystal's Parasect is one of the Pokémon that helped Crystal when she was injured on Mt. Mortar and since joined her team. She mainly uses it to induce status effects to stop them from running or attacking. It has a star shaped marking on its mushroom.

Xatee (Japanese: ネイぴょんNaipyon), Crystal's Xatu, is one of her childhood Pokémon that helped her after her accident on Mt. Mortar as a Natu. It is used as Crystal's primary aerial transport and evolved into Xatu sometime between the GSC Chapter and the Emerald Chapter. It has a star sticker under its eye.

Arckee (Japanese: ウインぴょんWinpyon) was initially a wild Pokémon on Mt. Mortar that was enraged by an eye injury caused by a wild Larvitar. It attacked Crystal and caused her to break her arms, although after the eye injury was resolved Crystal learned it wasn't naturally aggressive she added it to her team. Even though its eye has since healed it still has bad eyesight out of its right eye, which the same Larvitar exploited when it met it again. It is mainly used as land transport for Crystal as well as a strong battler. It has a star collar around its neck.

Mega (Japanese: メガぴょんMegapyon), Crystal's Meganium, was obtained by Crystal as a Chikorita that wanted to go on a journey like its fellow starter Pokémon Totodile and Cyndaquil, which had since gone on journeys with Silver and Gold, respectively. It went off to find Crystal that didn't want anymore team members but was impressed enough by it to add it to her team. It has Chumee's star pendant. It is at level 42.

Mimee (Japanese: バリぴょんBaripyon), a Mr. Mime, is Crystal's newest Pokémon on her team and as such, not much is known about it, except that it can create barriers like Sabrina's Mr. Mime. It is at level 44 and has a star sticker on its chest.

In box

Hitmonee (Japanese: エビぴょんEbipyon), Crystal's Hitmonchan, is one of Crystal's childhood Pokémon that helped her after she broke her arms and subsequently joined her team. It is her main battler and as such is her highest level Pokémon, one level higher then Arckee at level 54. Hitmonee was also lent to Emerald for his Battle Pyramid challenge. It has a star sticker on one of its gloves.

Bonee (Japanese: カラぴょんKarapyon), Crystal's Cubone, is one of her childhood Pokémon that helped her recover after she broke her arms at Mt. Mortar. She uses it as a secondary battler but mainly for False Swipe so it can whittle down a Pokémon's HP. It is at level 46 and has a natural star shaped crack in its helmet, fitting in with Crystal's star theme. Bonee was lent to Emerald along with Hitmonee for Emerald's Battle Pyramid challenge.

Befriended

Suicune

Suicune was one of the Pokémon that ran out of the Burned Tower and when Crystal first saw it in Olivine City she became determined to catch it. After several failed attempts that shattered her confidence, it joined her for the final battle against the Masked Man.

Trivia

Except for Meganium (Mega) and Mr. Mime, all of her Pokémon's nicknames end with 'ee'.

In the Japanese version, however, Meganium was given the nickname "Megapyon," following the naming convention of Crystal's other Pokémon. The same goes for Mr. Mime, which was nicknamed "Baripyon" in the original.

When Xatee was a Natu, it went by the nickname "Natee". However, that got changed later to reflect the evolution. The change occured only in English translation, though.